Welcome

Welcome to the Gate’s new energy blog. We hope it’s a place you’ll enjoy visiting from time to time.

As the name suggests, we’re going to talk about all manner of energy sources and technologies here. Oil, natural gas, gasoline, biofuels, nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal — we’ll try to bring you an interesting mix.

Basically, we’ll proceed from the assumption that if you’re reading this, you’re every bit as much of an energy geek as we are. That’s a good thing. The future of the planet, not to mention our economy, will depend on the energy sources we choose to use and the technologies we create to use them.

Most of the stuff you’ll see here will come from me, David R. Baker, the Chronicle’s energy reporter. But other Chron reporters will chime in when they have some info that the energy-obsessed might like. I’ll also make a point of linking you to studies and reports elsewhere that are worth a look. And when I find things that I think might amuse you, I’ll toss in some of those, too.

A couple of basic principles:

Global warming remains real. Those of us putting together this blog are satisfied that the vast majority of scientists who have devoted their lives to studying this issue aren’t completely full of it. If you believe otherwise, you probably won’t enjoy this blog.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for daily rants against the oil industry, you will be similarly disappointed. We don’t do demonization here. And if you want to join the conversation by commenting on these posts, we’d ask you to take the same approach.